Latest in a Line...

So here is another flash story.  I am trying to put a bunch together for an anthology that I am writing with Justin Graves.  Here's one that I think you'll like.  It's called Home Early, about what happens when a cheating wife's husband comes home from work unexpectedly during a zombie outbreak.
Enjoy!

Home Early

Allison was horrified to hear the front door open.  She had no idea what had been happening as she was far too busy with the pool cleaner to have her television turned on to the news reports of the carnage and mayhem that were rampant on every channel.  She was more concerned that her husband was home early.  She was half right. 

            As she and Gregorio scrambled to put their clothes on her husband Jeff made his way up the stairs toward the bedroom.  Allison was getting nervous; her and Jeff’s bedroom was at the top of the stairs so there was no way for Gregorio to sneak out of the house unless he attempted to go out the window.  They were debating the merits of this versus Gregorio hiding in a closet or under the bed when the bedroom door swung open.  Jeff’s mouth was wide open.  Too wide open – he was missing his lower jaw and his left eye was torn out.  His tongue was stuck to his throat with caked blood and saliva.  The front of his shirt was soaked to his skin and he was missing two fingers on his left hand.  Jeff looked from his wife to her lover and shuffled towards the man who was sharing the marital bed with his wife.  Gregorio screamed something in Portuguese and leapt from the window.

            He never hit the ground- he landed on top of a horde of Walkers and they snapped his legs like two kids splitting the wishbone of their Thanksgiving turkey.  His left leg was ripped sideways at the knee and torn off.  His entire right leg was ripped out at the ball and socket joint of his hip.  He would have screamed except for the fact that a Walker had sunk its fingers into his eyes like a bowler gripping a fourteen pound ball and ripped his head from his lower jaw.  All that remained was his tongue that wagged with involuntary nerve impulses and his ragged stump of broken spine.

            Allison was frozen in fear.  She had literally lost her mind at the sight of her mangled husband shambling into the room.  The only thought running through her mind at the end was the registration of terror and agony as her Jeff ripped ragged mouthfuls of flesh from her prone body like a shark tearing sustenance from the carcass of a whale. 

Another Flash Story!

This is a story I submitted for publication but it was after the deadline expired so it was denied.  I think it's a fairly good story,maybe not as good as my Pot Roast story, but still pretty good.  Let me know what you think!

Hide and Seek

“The woods are haunted you know,” Josh said as they walked.

“Bullshit,” Bob said grumpily.  “There are no such things as ghosts.  Don’t be so stupid.”

“You guys are so stupid.  Why do you have to argue all the time?” Tanya said, rolling her eyes.  “We’ll just go into the woods to where the house is supposed to be and see for ourselves.”

“Fine with me.  How are you feeling, Josh?” Bob asked.

“I’m not scared if that’s what you’re asking,” he said but didn’t sound too convincing.

“Yeah right.  If we need to find our way back we can just follow your urine trail.”

“Shut it, Bob,” Josh said.

They walked in silence through the woods to the shack where the ghosts of the murdered children were supposed to be.  They opened the door and went inside.  Everything had a thick layer of dust…everything but the toys that were scattered around the floor.  There were no footprints anywhere except from the three of them.

“This is creepy.  I want to leave,” Tanya said.

“You can’t leave.  Now that you’re here, you have to stay,” Bob whispered.

“What?” she asked, her voice almost a scream.

“The children need playmates,” he said, and looked her in the face.  “And you’re here.  Time to play.”

Josh grabbed Tanya by the arm and pulled her back through the door.  His face was pale as a sheet and he was terrified.  A wet spot manifested itself on the front of his pants.  The two of them ran, Tanya chancing a glance over her shoulder saw Bob standing in the doorway of the shack looking out at them.  A second later she fell to the ground hard on top of Josh.  He had tripped over a root and tried to use her to maintain his balance. 

A shadow fell over them.  Two people wearing dirty, ragged clothes were looking down at them.  They each wore crooked smiles that were short several teeth.  The one on the left brought a rock down on Josh’s skull.  There was a cracking sound like an egg being dropped on a tile floor.  Josh’s body began to shake like it was electrified and the horrible creature brought the rock down again and Josh was still.

Tanya saw hands reaching for her and she screamed and passed out from terror.

                                                            ***

“Be careful with your new ball, if you break that one it might be a long time before I can get another one,” Bob warned the children.  They grunted something unintelligible that he took to mean that they understood him.  They gently rolled Tanya’s head back and forth between them, her face locked in a frozen expression of fear.  Bob shook his head.  He warned them.  There were no ghosts.  Just the grown up children everyone thought were dead.  And they needed playmates.  Bob left the shack, eager to find more playmates for the children. 

They tired of their toys so quickly…

New Flash Fiction

So I need to post more often, clearly.  So I will be posting some of my new flash stuff that i'm working on so I can get some opinions on my work.  I just want to know how people are feeling about this stuff before I try to publish it.  So you can tell me what you think after you read it.  I will be adding some more soon.  Feel free to be honest.  I can take it, haha.  

Here's my most recent, entitled Rose From the Dead

ROSE FROM THE DEAD

Hungry. 

Hungry!

HUNGRY! 

HUNGRY!

HUNGRY!

The only thought going through her head was that of the need to eat.  She stumbled, nearly fell, righted herself and trudged on in a more or less straight line.  She had no idea where she was, or where she was headed.  Her need for nourishment was the only thing that drove her forward, kept her feet moving one after another.  To look at her you might think she was intoxicated.

HUNGRY!

She saw something move in the periphery of her left eye, but it was hard to find a proper direction in which to turn because her eye was dangling from the optic nerve from her eye socket and was bouncing against her cheek as she walked.  She turned and stared with her good right eye, but the view she expected was not what she got.  If she was capable of being nauseated she would have been.  Seeing two different points of view at the same time would do that to almost everyone, but she was far beyond that.  For Rose, it was just confusing.  And with her limited capacity to understand her surroundings and sensory input it just made her angry and upset.

HUNGRY!

She staggered along because she could hear something.  She would have hoped it was food if she was capable of any emotion other than basic, primal urges.  She staggered towards the direction of the sound, her bad eye causing her to walk in circles because her perspective kept changing.  She slowly reached up and pulled on the optic nerve and strands of muscle still holding the eye.  There was a small popping sound like a rubber band that broke after being stretched too far and Rose was in possession of only one line of sight.  Now she was able to see where she was going and follow the sound with greater ease.  She was able to sidestep a trashcan that had been knocked over and walk around a stalled car that was still smoldering. 

She approached an alley and the sound was getting louder.  A few days ago she would have recognized the sounds as a child calling for help but today it was like the ringing of a dinner bell.  Without realizing she was doing it, she began drooling at the thought of her impending meal.

HUNGRY!

HUNGRY!

HUNGRY!

She got into the narrow alley and saw the child, his mouth open and sound coming out.  She no longer recognized words so she did not hear the child call out to the woman on the fire escape above him.  All she knew was that she was finally about to get nourishment.  Of course all she got was a .22 caliber rifle bullet through her recently vacated left eye socket.  She fell down next to the child, who smiled up at the woman. 

Rose’s head was added to the others on the white picket fence surrounding the house where the child and his mother lived.

Rock and Shock Summation

So for the first time, I didnt go autograph seeking at this year's Rock and Shock convention.  The first thing that I noticed that was AWESOME was our booth had doubled in size, credit TJ May for that one.  I went around and checked out all the kickass vendors.  Everyone from Thrill Me Entertainment (rare/hard to find movies toys and memoribilia - find them at filmfurie.com ), Lightbeam3D.com (3D printing is their specialty) and of course the answer to the riddle What's black and white and red all over? The answer of course is ZombieInAPenguinSuit.com which is a short but awesome zombie film that was being marketed by people walking around hanging out small fliers and buttons.  I watched it and was blown away with how well-done it was, especially the awakening scene at the beginning.  Very awesome.
Know what else is awesome?  The artwork of Kristilyn (kristilyn.com , zombie-romance.com , kristilynINK@gmail.com ).  She did an awesome caricature of Ashleigh and me that we went crazy over!  She refers to herself on her business cards as a "Supremely Skilled Southpaw" and that's an understatement!  In addition to the caricatures she also does a lot of artwork depicting horror characters as well as turning well-known stories into zombie pictures.  Bambi, Alice in Wonderland and Red Riding hood are zombified, but to find out how, check out her sites!  That's all for now, just had to get this down before I didn't have time to do it.  Check out all the stuff I listed above.  You'll thank me later.

*REVIEW* Seed by Ania Ahlborn

Okay this is my first book review since Tamworth Grice's Listening to Ian Magick came out, for which I also wrote a review.  This book was suggested to me by my Kindle app on my Android phone.  I had just finished reading some Lovecraft stuff, and I recognized the author name as one of the people I follow and who follows me.  Here goes...

So I cannot say enough about how creepy this book really is.  It takes you into the world of Jack Winter who seems to be your run of the mill Louisiana resident.  His life is a typical American story - his in-laws don't like him because they feel like he isn't good enough for their daughter who is used to the best in life because she comes from money.  But she marries Jack because she loves who he is.  Things are tough but it's okay, because they havce everything they need, even though things get tight here and there.  The story starts off with Jack bringing the family home from a Chuck E. Cheese type of place because it is his daughter Charlotte's birthday.  She turned six, and the family is on their way home from the celebration.  Jack is driving a beat up old saturn because, like I said, things are tough and he and his wife Aimee are saving for a new one and are almost there. 
Then the headlights go out just as Jack sees something in the road - a pair of black eyes looking back at him.  He flips the car in his instinctual aversion of the car - he jerks the wheel to avoid hitting whatever was in the road.  Everyone is okay but Aimee is beyond upset because she thinks that Jack fell asleep.  However Charlotte (who likes to go by Charlie) wanders off, eventually revealing to her father that she saw something in the woods, and that she saw the pair of eyes right before the car flipped.
I will not get into too much detail but suffice it to say that you find out who the eyes belong to as you go along.  Ania does some flashing back and you learn why Jack loves Charlie more than his other daughter, Abby and maybe even more than he loves his wife.  She tells the story perfectly, giving you just enough information from the past and the present that you begin to more and more be sucked into the story, praying for a happy ending. 
Jack's a good guy, you can relate to him.  Charlie and Abby are good kids, and their dog Nubs is even a likable character.  All in all I would say that this is one of the better books I have read in a long time.  Ania Ahlborn does not pull any punches, nor does she take her foot off the gas once she steps on the accelerator.  She forces you to hang on and enjoy the ride, even if you begin to suspect that you may be headed for a cliff.
Ania Ahlborn can be found on Twitter - @AniaAhlborn and her website is http://www.aniaahlborn.com/ so go and sign up for her newsletter and be ready when her next work comes out this winter!

What a shitty day...

So tonight I got a text from my mother that she is pretty sure that she is going to have to put one of our cats down.  Now since Thursday of last week we have been dealing with some issues with him.  His name was Harpo and we have had him for eleven years.  He was born in the Cat Hospital of Auburn (MA) on February 13, 2000.  He was named Harpo after the Marx brother who did not speak because instead of meowing he would just open his mouth and no sound would come out.  My mother loved him more than any of the other cats she had. 
Last Wednesday she noticed that he was trying to urinate but nothing was coming out.  Turns out his urinary tract was blocked and he was unable to empty his bladder.  This is a potentially life threatening medical issue because if the bladder keeps filling up it will burst causing the cat to die a horribal death.  She made an appointment with him at the Route 20 Animal Clinic.  I brought him there because she was working and I was off until the afternoon.  When I got there the doctor weighed him, took his tempertature rectally and then told me that the cat needed to be unblocked immediately, and that it would be "about a ten minute procedure" and he then told me that he was short staffed and told me to go somewhere else.  Of course he charged me $39 for the office visit, having done nothing but tell me he cannot help and to go somewhere else.  Apparently it costs $39 for that.  It wasn't as if we just dropped in on him and asked him to do something that he had no preparation for.  He knew exactly why the cat was coming in and what needed to be done the ngiht before when the appointment was made.  One can only assume that he also knew he would be short staffed as well, seeing as how the girl was on vacation.
The last time I had gone to this clinic was May 14 of this year.  I had gone with Ashleigh and her cat for an emergency visit and was turned away because, according to the receptionist "He is only working until 1 and wants to leave early".  I explained to her that it was an emergency and that my family had been coming here for about 10 years with our cats and dogs.  She said she knew that, but directed us to go elsewhere.  It was amazing that she knew that, because I did not tell her my name.
So I took Harpo to the Cat Hospital of Auburn where he was born.  They gave me an estimate of $500-$800+ to get him all set.  I said there was no way I could afford that, could they work with me/my family after 16 years and literally tens of thousands of dollars spent there.
I was told all fees had to be collected at the time of the cat's pickup from the hospital.
They would not take a postdated check.
They asked if we had anyone we could borrow the money from.  I don't know about everyone else here but neither I nor my friends have $500-$800 just sitting around.
I applied for Care Credit- sort of like a credit card for vets- and was denied.
They would not take a partial payment and a check, but hold on to the check for a week until everyone got paid.  They said that was illegal.  Bear in mind, we had done this befofre.
I said I would have to take him home and we would explore other options.  Vet told me that would be "cruel and unusual" and that if money was an issue, it would only be $75 to put him down.
After some haggling and figuring out what the bare minimum that could be done - catheterization and drainage- they got down to $179.11.  And even with that, I had to ask Ashleigh for money.  So they did their thing and he was taken care of.  An hour later my dad called to tell me that we wouldn't need to borrow Ashleigh's money because he had won $488 on the daily lottery number. 
Awesome!  Things are looking up!
But Friday came and Harpo was home but still had not urinated.  After calling 15 places all over Massachusetts and Rhode Island, my mother finally resigned herself to the fact that she would have to put him down.  She brought him to Tufts because she was getting attitude from people demanding that if she was going to put him down, she come in and do it bt 11:30 because people wanted to go home by noon.
Tufts worked with her, allowed her to post-date checks from now until October.  It cost about $1200 but everything that needed to be done for Harpo was being done. 
Awesome! Things are looking up!
Then I get a text tonight from her saying that she thought she might have to finally do it.  His bladder was still full and hard and felt ready to burst.  We had not choice but to put him down.  I met her at Tufts, Ashleigh came with me.  My brother Dave drove mom and Harpo in.  On a whim, I stopped at Sunoco and bought a scratch ticket, praying for a miracle.  I matched both numbers on my ticket...could this be the windfall we needed to save Harpo??
Four.  Fucking.  Dollars.
It would have been better to not win anything because seeing that the ticket was indeed a winner only filled me with a sliver of hope.  I forget who said it but the quote goes "Hope is the worst of all evils for it prolongs the torments of man".  That's the fucking truth.
So we brought Harpo in, we had our time with him after mom tried anything and everything to get them to help us out -"Are there any studies going on, are there any students that can maybe work on him so we don't have to pay thousands of dollars for treatment?"
Nothing.
What was one of their solutions?
Sex reassignment surgery.
Let me repeat that.
Sex reassignment surgery.  Turn him from a boy cat into a girl cat.  Are you fucking serious??  That's an option? Spend thousands of dollars on a surgery that has a fucking terrible track record and has less than a 50% chance of success, requireing thousands of dollars in follow-up surgeries...or kill him?  What kind of busisnesses are these fucking places?  Why do they tell you your options are to ease the animal's suffering by spending everything you have on radical surgeries that most likely won't work or forcing you to end their suffering by holding them in your arms as they die because you don't have the money to save them!?! It would be one thing if there were payment plan options or something like that.  But they want their money as soon as the services are rendered.  It's a horrible thing, let me tell you, to have to watch a vet inject shit into the companion you have had for ELEVEN YEARS that you watched come into the world, to literally feel the animal's life drain out of him as you hold him.  To feel him purring against your hand until the poison surging through his body takes his strength away from him, to look into his eye as he dies, knowing that he cannot understand why you are doing this to him.  I was so angry, so angry.  I hated having to put him down.  It was one of the worst feelings I have ever had.  My mother was beside herself. 
That is why I am writing this at 315 am, why I can't sleep.  I needed to get this off my chest, get this out there so that people could see the types of things that we had to deal with.  Now we spent $179.11 in Auburn, and another $1200 at Tufts.  Then we STILL had to bring him back and they put him down, and THEN THEY CHARGED US ANOTHER $350 FOR IT!  Ashleigh was awesome though.  She paid for our visit tonight, because the assholes were DEMANDING something, they couldn't just bill us for it, they couldn't just take another postdated check.  They wanted at least HALF at that moment.  Don't give us any time to grieve, just trot out the fucking bill.So after all they did, he was still suffering and now he's dead.  When my mom wakes up (if she even sleeps tonight) she is going to bury him in the front yard.  It cost us $1750 for nothing.  And it broke her heart to do what she did.  She blamed herself for not making enough money to save her kitty.   
Even if you don't have pets, you have to be enraged with this story.  If you do I hope that none of them EVER have to go through this.  And I have a horrible feeling that this is just the beginning.  We have two dogs, 13 and 12 years old.  We have several more cats, some aged 15, 16, 13 years old.  It sucks.
Look I know that this rant sort of makes me seem like less of a big scary horror writer, but when you love something and you have to choose between money you don't have, and aren't able to get and killing that thing you love, you feel depressed and angry and like a piece of shit.  I feel so awful.  I can't sleep.  I'm venting on my blog about something that I could not control, and I am still angry.  I have to go to work tomorrow, but I still cannot force myself to get back into bed, even though there is no more comfortable place than next to Ashleigh.  Nothing makes me feel better than to curl up next to her.  And even that right now, is not helping.  I appreciate any words of encouragement, any comments you may have.  Thanks for reading.

Here I am, Rock You Like a Hurricaine!

And I'm back on the air.  A lot has been going on recently, so I've been away.  Good news is I am currently working on my zombie novel, the one I am writing with Alyn Day with hopes that I will have a finished product on Kindle by the end of September - I will be writing like a maniac in the meantime.  I am also wracking my brain for a way to afford Bruins home opener tickets for Ashleigh's birthday.  Not sure it will be happening.  Preliminary prices are $265 and those are the lowest I have seen thus far.  I know they aren't officially on sale yet but it isn't looking too good.  Fortunately they have a home game against Montreal on October 27, and pricess seem quite good for that one!
Also trying to decide on complementary gifts for our anniversary in a few weeks (September 13).  Got the big one picked, just looking for the extras.  Thinking about inquiring about a car, or truck rather.  I want something like a Tacoma or Ranger or F-150 but the smaller versions.  I need something with 4-wheel drive.  My Yaris is decent in the snow but a 4-wheel drive truck would be way better.  And rear-wheel drive trucks are not so good.  Had one, worst vehicle I have ever had in the snow.
Looking for a good horror movie to see?  Ash and I recently watched Insidious and we liked it.  Got a tad crappy towards the end but very good overall.  I liked it a lot.  Also Suckerpunch was quite good.  Be back on over the weekend with a little exerpt from the new book as well as the new business card design!